Last season's on-the-floor improvement has brought improvement in early ticket sales for the Indiana Pacers.

With the Nov. 6 regular-season home opener still more than a month away, the Pacers report better than a 5 percent increase in season ticket sales, a 3 percent increase in half-season ticket packages and a 39 percent increase in 10-game packages.

The comparisons are for the same calendar date last year. The front office did not release sales totals.

The Pacers won a franchise-record 61 games last season and reached the Eastern Conference finals after losing in the first round the three previous seasons.

Attendance figures often reflect the level of success in the previous season as much as in the current season, as fans take a wait-and-see attitude. Last season, the Pacers' attendance picked up after Christmas, as it traditionally does throughout the NBA. They averaged 15,565 fans through their first 14 home games at Conseco Fieldhouse, and 16,941 in the other 27 games.

Their season average of 16,471 was a slight improvement over the previous season (16,353).

"We had gone about halfway through the schedule and our ticket sales had dropped from the year before," Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh said. "I was surprised by that, to be honest. Normally when you're doing really well people come into see the team, but eventually that did happen.

"Once you get past the halfway mark, more and more people start coming to the games."

Walsh said he's not surprised by the improvement in ticket sales, and expects it to happen throughout the NBA.

"We've got an exciting young team, and if you look around, the whole league is starting to mature," he said. "I think it's going to be an exciting product as you go down the line."

Lord Helmet

10-03-2004, 12:51 PM

Sweet :cool:

ChicagoJ

10-04-2004, 06:17 PM

I'm actually surprised by this...

We waited until after the "official upgrade period", and we were able to move down several rows from our old seats.

I thought they'd have a boost on balcony ticket sales, with the lower prices (hence, our move to stay in the balcony, but move the second row and still pay less $$ per ticket per game than last season).